Learn more about The Lost Child:

For readers of "Beautiful Boy" and "Hurry Down Sunshine" comes a deeply personal and moving account of two lost children separated by two centuries.

From the Publisher:Traces the author's investigation into the life of a Regency England artist who painted emotionally moving watercolors before her early death, a search throughout which the author grieved for the son whose drug habits forced their family to shut him out of their lives. By the author of Something Might Happen.

Annotation:English writer Julie Myerson has seven novels to her credit, but there is little question that this is by far her most important book. In this harrowing memoir, Myerson painfully shares the story of her struggles to save her estranged and often deranged son from a life controlled by drug abuse. Perhaps in order to dilute her own torment, Myerson involves her account of another lost child, a 19th-century watercolor artist named Mary Yelloly who lived in Myerson's town of Suffolk and died young, at the age of 21, whose story she had been researching for a book when her son's troubles took over her life. His descent into depravity began when he started smoking a particularly potent strand of marijuana, after which he abandoned school, physically and mentally abused both of his parents, stole or destroyed their belongings, and ditched his girlfriend after getting her pregnant. When Myerson discovered that he had sold drugs to his younger brother, she had no choice but to lock him out of the house. Myerson's story will touch the heart of every parent, as she poignantly examines the nature of unconditional love and guiltily admits that she may have been complicit in her son's downfall, due to her liberal policies on discipline. Selected by the New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of 2009.

Praise

"THE LOST CHILD will appeal to readers of David Sheff's BEAUTIFUL BOY, still the standard-bearer--but that's not enough. These are books for all parents, no matter what shape they think their children are in. Indeed, these books are for anyone interested in public policy relating to drugs....Books like these signal the beginning of awareness. And the beginning of hope that we can do right by our children." - Dominique Browning 08/30/2009